Seeing Stars
by Rem-sama
Summary: Kairi is summoned to Radiant Garden to celebrate its reconstruction... but the people expect her to stay for good.  Sora and Riku are on their way, but who is mysteriously thwarting them?  The pressure's mounting...will Kairi take the crown?  SoraxKairi
1. Message

**SEEING STARS  
by _Rem-sama_**

Even for Destiny Islands, the summer months rarely ever reached the hot temperatures where an egg could cook on your doorstep before noon came. The muggy days, keeping the residents inside from even the temptation of a cool swim, were unprecedented. The trio agreed to meet at Sora's air-conditioned home with refreshments provided courtesy of his mom... and so they had planned for this particularly stifling day.

The problem was Kairi hadn't shown up yet.

"Any more news from the King?" Riku asked. He was lying on the floor with the air conditioner vent blowing in his face. Sora, still in the middle of a generous glass of his mother's lemonade, gulped it down and wiped his mouth with the back of his arm before answering.

"Nah. The last I heard from him was in spring, remember? When Huey, Dewey, and Louie started their mailing business?"

"Yeah," Riku laughed. "I can just picture the three of them flying a gummi ship from world to world, delivering letters! Must be a lot of them going around since the Princesses of Heart were reunited."

Both of them were quiet. Neither of them wanted to look back on that dark spot of their friendship... when all the princesses were gathered together.

"Where's Kairi?" Sora broke the tension, looking behind him from his position on the bed as if expecting her to walk in on cue.

"'Dunno," Riku shrugged, his hair whipping around his face from the blast of the vent. "Maybe Axel kidnapped her again."

They both laughed at this, despite the sharp ache it gave Sora deep in his chest, somewhere were Roxas could hear them.

Just then, the sound of a door shutting caught their attention.

"Oh, hello Kairi!" Sora's mother's voice rose up through the floor. "He's up in his room with Riku. Terrible weather we're having, isn't it? Tell your mother I'll be over for her fireworks party, though I suppose they'll all melt in this heat."

"Yes, I will," Kairi's response was patient. The sound of footsteps climbed up to Sora's room and she came in with a smile. She didn't even wait for them to greet her; the news seemed to explode from her like she couldn't have held it in any longer.

"You'll never guess what's happened!" she cried, fanning her reddened face with a large manila envelope. The heat had compelled her to wear short-shorts that were pink striped just like her blouse... and a moment later, just like Sora's cheeks.

"You're a princess!" Riku shouted with feigned shock.

"Your natural hair color is blonde!" Sora joined.

"Your keyblade's grown weeds!"

"There's _another_ Ansem!" This last one caused both of the guys to double over in laughter. Riku covered his face with his hands and his deep laugh echoed in them.

"Ha-ha, you two are _so_ funny." Kairi tried to sound serious, but the suppressed laughs were screwing up her face. She waved the manila envelope around like a toy mouse in front of the eyes of hungry cats. They began to calm down, caught by its intrigue.

"It seems like you two aren't the only ones interested in knowing I'm a princess."

Sora's tilted his head sideways, half amused, half concerned. He jumped off the bed and went over to Kairi.

"What does it say?" he asked. Kairi's smile widened. She turned the parcel over, showing the side with her address and two stamps with moogles on it. She slipped the papers out and handed them to Sora with an air of authority.

"A decree from the Restoration Committee of Radiant Garden," she announced proudly. "They've rebuilt half the town and are nearly finished rebuilding the castle! They've invited us to come and see the final tower put into place on it! The decree is a formal request made by the townspeople. They want their princess to come back for the ceremony. That's me!"

"That's great Kairi!" said Riku.

"But..." Sora began. "If they're requesting you to come back, doesn't that mean they may want you to stay?" Sora looked worried as he looked over the contents of the letter, reading every word twice. It said everything Kairi had told them. Kairi seemed to be expecting this answer because she didn't miss a beat.

"Yeah, but that's okay. I'll tell them that Destiny Islands is my home and I couldn't possibly live anywhere else. I'm sure they will understand."

"Maybe you could elect Squall to be King of Radiant Garden," Riku said. An image of Leon, surrounded by a flowery garden, wearing a crown of Mickey Mouse ears, made Sora snort loudly. Suddenly they were all at it again. Kairi was still giggling when three hard knocks came from the front door downstairs. A moment later Sora's mother called up.

"Sora! You and your friends have visitors!"

The three of them shared the same look.

"You don't think...?"

"Already?"

"That's impossible..."

And quick as a flash the trio was tumbling over each other as they raced down the stairs and through the hall. Sora's mother stepped back out of the way as they thundered past her to the front door. It was wide open. An aura of terrible heat smacked them in the face as they approached, the sun blinded their eyes. They nearly stopped in their tracks and slowed down immediately. In shocked fascination they emerged from the house and looked down on the scene before them.

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A/N: What do you think? Good imagery? Too fast or unrealistic? Good characters or are they a little OOC? Please review with your thoughts/ predictions/ _kind_ criticism!!


	2. Entourage

**SEEING STARS  
****Chapter 2**

_By Rem-sama_

Thirty? Forty? An entire entourage of officials stood in five lines in front of the deck. They were all purple-faced from being outside in full-fledged red-and-white suits and foot long feathered hats. Some were holding trumpets, probably for this very moment, but none of them seemed to be getting enough air to blow on them. A stout little man in red tights stood at the front with a very thick roll of paper in his hands. As soon as Sora, Kairi, and Riku were in view, the man walked to the center and undid his roll of paper only a fraction.

"By the decree vested in myself, Sir Mack, administered by the constituents on the behalf of the Royal Family of Radiant Garden, her Royal Highness Princess Kairi of Heart is summoned to pass her blessing on the reconstruction of her kingdom and attend the Crowning Ceremony."

_Attend?_ Sora thought. _Does that mean she's not the one who's going to become the ruler of Radiant Garden?_

Sir Mack let go of the bottom of the scroll and it wound itself up with a snap. "Your men, Kairi-hime, are ready to escort you back to your home. We will be leaving in short order. Your guardians have been notified."

"My guardians?" Kairi said, her voice small compared to the authoritative tone the short messenger has been throwing around. "You mean my parents?"

"Your parents were swallowed by darkness when Radiant Garden fell victim to the plague of heartless when you were seven."

Sora's head was still spinning, trying to take the scene in. He looked over at Kairi. Her bright face had suddenly darkened.

"I am aware of that," she said coldly, "but my Mom and Dad here on Destiny Islands have raised me since then. _They're_ my parents."

"Yes, your highness," the man bowed low, almost touching his nose to the ground. All the rows of men behind bowed with him, as if they were all asking her pardon from a serious offense. "It is a trivial matter. My apologies."

"So, are we going?" Riku asked. Kairi turned her back to the bowed men to face her two best friends. Riku looked excited, but Sora wasn't too sure.

"I would be nice to be there for the blessing of the reconstruction," Kairi said. "And we could thank the committee of Squall and the others. We don't have to stay too long."

The men from behind had now stood up and were looking around impatiently. The ones in the back row looked like they had tomatoes for heads, they were so hot.

"We'll stay awhile, it's not a big deal," Riku gave a thumbs up, which was most out of character for him…it was more like something Sora would do when he was trying to cheer somebody up. "We'll come back, together."

A smile finally worked its way over Kairi's face. Sora wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Yeah," he added. "We wouldn't leave you behind. We'll all come back home afterwards." His words, however, didn't calm the knot in his stomach. Something was off. What wasn't right about this?

"Alright," Kairi turned on her heel and addressed her entourage. "We've decided to accept your summons. I need to run home and pack first…and change."

Sir Mack put his nose in the air as he looked over Kairi's short-shorts attire which was hardly worthy of a proper princess. He mouthed the word "_indeed_."

"Alright, we'll meet you back here, okay?" Riku pointed to the deck they stood on. The other two nodded and they split up going to their respective homes. As Riku sped to the beach, he saw the fleet of gummi ships the men had come in. They were dark blue and purple, at least twenty of them, surrounding a gigantic mahogany-colored gummi ship with the Radiant Garden Coat of Arms painted in gold on its side. Riku took a right on the street nearest the beach off to his home.

_I guess I'll have to pack my best clothes_ he thought. _This is hard core._

Fifteen minutes passed by and Riku returned to Sora's house. Sora was sitting on the deck while his mother was walking down the rows of sweat-drenched soldiers, passing out full glasses of lemonade to them. When offered, Sir Mack refused even though there were rings soaking through his shirt.

"I hope they've spruced up the castle," Riku said to Sora. He moved out of the way as Sora's mom walked past, back into the house. "Last time I was there it was pretty gloomy."

"Yeah. I just want to get into town to see Leon, Yuffie, Cloud, Merlin, and Aerith."

Somewhere on another world, Cid sneezed.

"Ready!" Kairi called, walking up the road to them. She'd changed into a clean white shirt and a pink shirt that went below her knees. Sir Mack turned to his men, who were still enjoying their drinks, and yelled out in a loud voice to prepare the fleet. The men marched off. The trio followed, duffel bags in tow, but Sir Mack stopped them.

"We have limited room…" his nose was pointed to the sky. "We'll have a secondary escort to accommodate you two" –– he pointed to Sora and Riku ––"to her highness' kingdom."

"What?"

"But I thought you said ––"

"The letter ––"

"I'm not going without them."

"Kairi!" Sora said her name, as if she would somehow know a solution but she looked just as confused as he felt. This was unfair!

"All those ships at the beach and you have no _room_?" Riku questioned, towering over the little man. Sir Mack gulped, but nodded his head.

"We'll send a second escort," he repeated. "The princess will be protected, I assure you."

"Protected from _whom_?" Sir Mack didn't have an answer to Riku's question.

The rest of the men had gone. It was only the four of them, immovable from the spot.

"Go on," Riku jerked his head forward, bidding Kairi to go. "We'll be there soon. Don't worry. I don't want you to miss the ceremony." The knot in Sora's stomach must have spread to his throat because he couldn't say anything.

_Stop it._ Sora thought. _You're being paranoid. Stop it _now.

"Sora?" Kairi leaned towards his down-cast head. He looked up immediately. Kairi took his hands and pink spread once more across his face. But this wasn't the time to be thinking of such things. Kairi was depending on him. He couldn't be the reason they missed the ceremony! Another ship would come pick them up, right? What was the problem? There wasn't one.

"You don't want to be late," he squeezed her hands. "Look for us in the crowd. We'll be there, I promise."

"You two make too many promises," Riku sighed. Kairi giggled.

"Alright. I'll see you soon." She sped off behind the trail of her messenger leading the way. Sora looked down into his open hands and saw that Kairi had left him here thalassa shell lucky charm. A few minutes later Sora and Riku watched as the fleet of royal gummi ships sped off into space like sapphire colored shooting stars.

"Let's go inside," Riku wrapped his arm around Sora's neck and noogied him. "We'll melt if we wait out here. Your hair is drooping already!"

"Is not!" Sora struggled out of Riku's hold and frantically propped his brown spikes up to its regular pointy-self. Riku could barely stop laughing. They went inside to stare out the bay window, watching the sky. It was clear and blue, like tinted glass.

The ships never came.

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A/N: The plot thickens! I think Riku is being a little too kid-like, and Sora doesn't have any important lines yet…and I respect Kairi a bit more than I'm portraying her… the girl's gotta have another color in her wardrobe! I just know it! Haha!

I'd very much appreciate reviews! Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to comment on the plot and direction of the characters and story!


	3. Mystery

**SEEING STARS**

**Chapter 3**

_By Rem-sama_

Kairi watched out the port window as her island home shrunk smaller and smaller until it was only a faraway star, a white dot, and finally a tiny spec barely visible over the universe's horizon. She sat up in her cushioned seat and turned her attention to the spacious cabin she'd been given for the trip. She'd never been in a gummi ship before; it was even more amazing than Sora had told her about!

_Sora…why couldn't they come in here with me? There's plenty of room…_

She would have asked the pilot precisely this question, but then she noticed the large golden plague stationed above the doors that read: _Princess' Quarters_. No doubt it would have been scandalous to ask two guys to stay inside anywhere labeled _Princess' Quarters_.

Kairi stood up and paced along the edge of a shaggy rug that led from her chair to a gorgeous four-poster bed to an ornate dresser. She opened the middle drawer and marveled at the perfectly folder pink under-robes. The drawer above revealed three pairs of rolled socks that fit perfectly with the black pumps filed next to them. Even more curious, Kairi looked through the rest of the dresser, but the only thing of interest to mention was the one fringed, lacy pink dress that was bright enough to cause eye cancer. At least, that's what Kairi thought. She loved the color, yes, but even she had her limits. Don't you dare tell anyone, but all her underwear is black.

Sighing once more to herself, Kairi closed the drawers and reclaimed her seat at the window. There were dozens of ships following behind hers, all of them flying over a sparkling road of blinking blue lights that shimmered like the stars themselves…but they were twinkling out –– one-by-one –– as they passed over them. That didn't seem right. Why would the trail disappear? Is this what was supposed to happen?

_How will I get back?_

"Kairi-hime!" the intercom made Kairi jump right out of her seat. "We'll be arriving in about twenty minutes. Please use this time to dress in your regal attire. We can –– or rather your ladies-in-waiting will –– dress you in finer clothing for the ceremony once we reach home." The intercom voice of the pilot clicked off, but the voice left Kairi very uneasy. It wasn't so much that they had these frivolous clothes picked out for her, or that they were so close to Radiant Garden, or even that she had ladies-in-waiting.

It was that last word _home_ that dropped a stone to the bottom of Kairi's stomach.

_Home_.

Where the heart is.

It only took Sora and Riku a few minutes of looking through the bay window at the sky to realize something was definitely wrong. The gummi fleet had long since vanished, rising up into the air like departing stars shot into the atmosphere like a barrage of bullets from a single gun. The first sign of trouble sprung upon them as they squinted up at the sun, their noses pressed up against the glass, watching for the next group of ships to come and get them. Immediately Sora's vision turned black – night had struck like a club to the head. A starless, black night with only two pale yellow lights in the sky. Riku gave a strangled cry and sprang for the door.

"What––?" Sora cried, falling backward – and that's when he saw it! Night hadn't come upon them! There was a heartless blocking the window, its two yellow eyes opened wide and staring into Sora's living room. Then, just as suddenly, it melted into the ground and crawled away just as Riku rushed to the spot outside with his keyblade at his side. It was gone.

"Dammit!" Riku pounded the glass with his fist. Sora ran out of the house to join him.

"This doesn't make sense," Sora said. Riku nodded, not really listening, and magic'd his keyblade away. "The heartless were eradicated from Destiny Islands when I destroyed 'The End of the World.'"

"I know," Riku said. In a better mood he would have poked fun of Sora for knowing a word with a syllable count higher than three, but this was not one of those times. He scanned the road, but it was no use. The little bugger was nowhere in sight.

"Where did they come from?" Sora asked.

"I don't' know. But if there's one, there's probably a horde of them."

Sora gripped his hands into fists. He was about to say how they should split up and get rid of the heartless, that it wasn't such a big deal because they had handled far worse before…but he never had the time to say any of these things.

This was because, just then, an ear-splitting explosion made them look up into the sky. A cloud of smoke was falling fast into their atmosphere. The smoke dispersed and a small green gummi ship with flames bursting from the tail end came careening towards the ground.

"SORA DO SOMETHING!!" Riku cried over the noise of the approaching ship.

"WHAT CAN _I _DO???" he screamed back. They both grabbed their keyblades from the air and starting running to where the ship would no doubt crash.

"USE GRAVIRA YOU IDIOT!!"

Sora cast his keyblade high into the air and released its magic on the ship. Immediately it was consumed by a black and purple sphere of energy. The energy ball slowly lowered the gummi ship to the sandy ground and dispersed. Three bodies sprang out, running from the burning inferno just in time. A second later the flames hit the gas tank and the whole thing blew up to high heaven. Riku and Sora both used Aeroga to protect themselves and the three persons from the flames and shrapnel.

When they had moved a considerable distance away from the crowds that had come to gawk at the melted metal and plastic heap, Sora and Riku finally realized who it was that they saved. In squeaky, high voices they gave their appreciation.

"Thanks guys!" said the one in red.

"That was _close_!" said blue.

"But all the letters are burnt up!" mourned the green one.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie, _Mailmen Extraordinaires!_

Or…maybe _ex-_mailmen would be more accurate now.

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A/N: Well? Pretty good for one day's worth of writing, eh? Forgive me, but I _completely forgot I had this project at all!! Really!!_ I was cleaning out my desk and found the notes I have on the story and was all UH-OH!! Luckily I had already started in on chapter three and only had to find a way to introduce the Quack Pack by the end.

Personally, I think I'm making Sora act too stupid. Hopefully the characters are not acting too OOC (have I already said that? sorry). If you think my jokes are bad (i.e. Kairi's black underwear) I do know this. Haha, I try.

Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW  They make me happy and inspired. I'll write the next chapter sooner…and not forget about it! Ha ha.


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